The two young men were shocked out of their wits when they found all their friends already lying weakly near the dining table.
"Oh, you're back," Sunoo said casually.
"You're seriously cheating," said the lavender-haired boy with emphasis.
"This is our dimension. You're the guests here," Heeseung replied.
"We wouldn't even come here if you hadn't kidnapped us yourselves," said the red-haired boy.
Without wasting another second, the boy hurried toward his friends. Earlier, he and his companion had decided to step away for a moment to check something, telling the others to stay put and not touch anything. But Heeseung and Sunoo had come disguised as them and persuaded their friends to eat the food on the table.
Snap.
The sound of fingers snapping made him collapse instantly, unconscious beside the others.
"Ghanta!"
"Don't move," Sunoo said firmly as he approached the lavender-haired boy who now couldn't move at all.
"Game over."
Arkha jolted as those memories flashed before his eyes. He became more alert, scanning his surroundings cautiously—the place he saw looked exactly like where he was now.
~~~~~~~~~
Sunoo stared at the monitor screen in front of him and slammed the table in annoyance. "Tch, damn it. They made up way too fast."
"Their friendship is stronger than we expected," Sunghoon said.
"Or maybe your acting just wasn't convincing enough," Riki teased while pressing a button on the remote, turning off Sunoo's monitor.
"Damn you, I even went all out with the makeup," Sunoo huffed.
"So what now?" Riki asked.
"Straight to the next plan," Jungwon said while loading bullets into a gun.
Jay walked over to Heeseung, who was dozing off.
"This kid's sleeping again," he muttered, patting Heeseung's cheek several times.
"You're annoying," Heeseung said, pushing Jay away.
"Work, will you? Stop sleeping," Jay snapped.
"I already did," Heeseung replied lazily.
"Yeah, just standing around as a shadow," Jay mocked.
"Still work," Heeseung shrugged.
"Let's go meet our twins," Jay said.
"Too lazy. I'd rather sleep and stay handsome," Heeseung replied.
"You're such a buffalo," Jay scoffed.
"Look in the mirror," Heeseung shot back.
"Just leave him if he doesn't want to come," Jake finally intervened.
Riki glanced at Sunoo, who was pouting. "You coming or not?"
"No. I'm still annoyed my drama failed," Sunoo said.
"Alright, then the five of us will go meet them," Jungwon concluded.
They all left the room.
~~~~~~
Jio kept sneaking glances at Arkha to check on him. "Khan, is your head feeling any better?"
"Yeah, a bit," Arkha replied.
"I feel like we still haven't found Hesa and Setta. They're the only ones not with us yet," Satya said.
"We have to keep looking," Joan said, briefly glancing at Arkha—though Arkha didn't notice.
They had been walking for minutes without finding a single door. The building looked like an abandoned warehouse—mostly wide open spaces, with a few smaller rooms like bedrooms but without doors.
"Guys, maybe we should split up?" Satya suggested.
"No. We'll just get separated again," Jio replied.
A very fragrant aroma suddenly caught their attention. It came from a dining table not far from where they stood.
"D-Don't touch anything here," Arkha said nervously as the others looked toward the table.
"We know. We're in another world, we can't just trust anything here," Joan said.
Clap clap clap.
The sound of applause echoed along with approaching footsteps.
"Looks like my twin is pretty smart," Jungwon said.
"Y-You guys…"
Jake instinctively pulled his friends' hands back slowly, signaling them to retreat.
"Who are you actually?!" Jio shouted.
"Hey, can't you see we look just like you?" Jay said.
"But we don't have twins," Joan replied.
"To be precise, we're you from the past," Jungwon said.
"Reincarnation?!" Arkha blurted.
"Hey, why are we telling them that? It's better if they die curious. They'll end up wandering as ghosts," Jake chuckled mockingly.
"Enough talking. Let's just start the game," Jay said, raising his hand to snap his fingers.
"D-Don't," Arkha muttered in panic.
This was exactly like the earlier memory. They would all fall asleep because of that snap, and he didn't know what would happen next—but Arkha was sure it would be bad.
Snap.
Silence.
Arkha looked at his friends. They were still standing, staring at their own copies.
This was different from Agantha's memory?
"Huh, it didn't work," Sunghoon said.
"So it really is reincarnation," Riki added.
Seeing the copies just as confused, Arkha took it as a chance. He whispered, "Guys, run."
Without wasting another second, they ran—
but—
Bang!
They turned when they realized something was wrong. A body fell to the ground, followed by hysterical screams from the others.
"JIO!"
Jungwon, the shooter, casually blew the tip of his gun.
"Since the usual game won't work, we'll switch to another one," Sunghoon said.
"I got inspiration from you running earlier. The new game… hmm… hide and seek," Jungwon said, snapping his fingers.
Slowly, the ground beneath them transformed into another place—a circular, multi-level building with an open roof in the center, where they now stood.
"Nice," Jake rubbed his hands together, grinning at the Thirteen like a predator staring at helpless prey.
"Hide and seek. Whoever gets caught will be punished. You've already seen one of the punishments," Jay said with a smile.
The Copies laughed at Arkha and the others' terrified expressions. To them, it was hilarious.
"Why are you spacing out? Let's play hide and seek," Riki added.
They ignored the Copies and rushed toward Jio, who lay on the ground bleeding from his stomach.
"Go, idiots! Don't try to help me!" Jio shouted.
"Shut up, bro," Niki snapped.
Arkha was the first to reach Jio, helping him stand—
Bang!
Arkha's left arm was shot. Instantly, Jio pushed him away.
"Save yourself! I don't want to be a burden!"
"N-No—"
Joan arrived and pulled Arkha away. "If we finish this game, Jio will survive too!"
Arkha looked back and saw Jio being dragged away by the Copies.
Bang!
Another gunshot scattered them in different directions.
~~~~~
Hesa slowly blinked awake, rising from his "grave"—sleep, rather. His body ached from lying on the cement floor for who-knows-how-long.
"Kyungmin," he called.
The lavender-haired young man who was putting a bandage on Hesa's forehead turned and smiled.
"You're really pitiful. Your head was hit until it bled and nobody treated it," Kyungmin said.
"Thanks for taking care of it," Hesa replied.
"You're welcome."
Kyungmin helped Hesa sit up.
"Where are we?" Hesa asked.
"Still in their dimension," Kyungmin answered.
"Do you know how to get out of here?"
Kyungmin nodded. "Through a portal. It looks like the one you usually use for time travel."
"Okay, I get it."
"Your friends were brought here too. They're on the lower floor. I think they'll be gathered in the electrical room later," Kyungmin explained.
The electrical room? Right—Hesa had seen it before. The room he suspected would be used for torture.
"Thanks. But if I may ask… why are you helping me?" Hesa asked cautiously.
Kyungmin paused, then lowered his head. "I'm their victim too," he said softly.
"Huh? A victim?!"
"Yeah. That's why I want to help you survive so they won't keep claiming more victims."
Hesa gently patted Kyungmin's shoulder—somehow he could touch him. Back to the topic, he felt a bit sympathetic toward the ghost in front of him.
"I'll do my best to ruin their game this time," Hesa said firmly, which made Kyungmin smile as if he had just gained hope.
~~~~~~
Joan and Arkha took a short rest in a room. Their energy was drained from all the running.
It was a small empty room with nothing but a bathtub filled with water and a window beside it. Arkha leaned against the tub while Joan leaned on the wall.
"Let's hide here for a bit, then slowly look for the others," Joan said.
Arkha didn't reply. He was still thinking about the others' fate.
"You're lucky the bullet only grazed your arm instead of hitting you," Joan said, tearing the sleeve of his outer shirt and wrapping it around Arkha's arm.
Arkha glanced at his treated arm and gave a faint smile. "I was stupid back then… leaving you."
"I know you were stressed and chose the easy way out," Joan replied.
"You're not mad at me?"
"Of course I was annoyed, but this isn't the right time to argue. We should unite and find a way out together."
"Thanks for still helping me."
"You gave up because you wanted to save Hesa. But why did Hesa give up?" Joan suddenly asked.
Arkha paused. He remembered Hesa saying it would be dangerous if more people knew about the terror. But Joan already seemed to know quite a lot.
"Hesa was the first to know about the terror. He planned to sacrifice himself so we wouldn't get dragged into it. But they didn't want to let us go that easily," Arkha explained.
Joan chuckled, realizing he had misunderstood. "I was stupid. I even thought you kidnapped Setta on purpose to prove if he was real or not. But earlier, when he pitted you against Jio, I realized he's not the real Setta." He smiled at Arkha.
"From now on, I'll help you and Hesa. We'll face them together."
Joan's confident words somehow made Arkha even more uneasy.
Step… step… step…
Footsteps approached, making them both alert.
"Looks like the detective has a new partner," Jake said.
"Our job just got more troublesome," Jungwon added lazily.
"What do you actually want? Why are you terrorizing us like this?!" Joan stepped forward.
"What are you doing, Joan?!" Arkha whispered in confusion.
"Just stay still, bro," Joan said, slightly spreading his left arm to shield Arkha behind him.
"I'm too lazy to talk. Let's just do the job," Jake said, raising his gun.
Jungwon laughed and suddenly grabbed Joan's arm, but Joan noticed first and dodged—though Jungwon didn't stay idle.
Thud!
Jungwon kicked Joan in the stomach and pinned him down.
"Stop!" Arkha tried to approach, but Jake restrained his movement.
"You're my business, not his," Jake said.
Joan struggled as Jungwon sat on his stomach, knees pinning Joan's arms.
"W-What are you doing?" Joan gasped.
"Having fun. Nothing wrong with having fun with my own twin, right?" Jungwon replied cheerfully, immediately injecting a syringe into Joan's neck.
"Ahh— You bastard!" Joan winced, but soon lost consciousness.
Arkha froze at the sight, struggling to break free, but Jake threw him backward.
"My job's done. Have fun," Jungwon said, dragging Joan away.
"MOVE!" Arkha shouted.
"Hey, where are you going? Joan's already being handled by his twin, so don't worry," Jake said.
"Idiot! My friend won't be fine with you people!" Arkha kept struggling, but Jake raised his pistol in warning.
"You're my task. I'm not letting you go until I'm done," Jake said.
"What task?!"
"Hide and seek. Whoever gets found gets caught. You'll all be gathered in one room eventually. But I want to play with you first, then I'll let you go. I promise," Jake said.
"I don't want to! I don't care if you let me go or not—I can still try to escape!" Arkha snapped.
Jake suddenly chuckled. "You're really funny, you know that? Just a while ago you looked depressed from that prank."
"Prank?"
"That hallucination drug is still just a plan. We haven't even made it yet," Jake said.
Those words angered Arkha. He lunged to attack, but the copy countered and knocked him straight into the bathtub.
Jake laughed loudly while forcing Arkha's head underwater so he couldn't breathe.
Footsteps rushed toward the room.
"K-Khan?!"
Jake turned casually. "Hesa, you came right on time."
Hesa fell to his knees when he saw Jake walking toward him while a motionless body lay in the bathtub.
"A-Are you going to kill me now?" Hesa asked as Jake approached.
"That wouldn't be fun. The main character dying too early is boring," Jake said, walking past him.